Restored ‘Diva’ back in spotlight

Just as the French have given Jerry Lewis more respect as a filmmaker than Hollywood, it was American audiences that turned French director Jean-Jacques Beineix’s quirky caper flick “Diva” into a hit 25 years ago.

“America saved my film,” says the 61-year-old Beineix. “People [at home] said that this movie was just glossy and had no significance, no scenario, and it was all surface and no brain. When the film was released in France [in 1981], it was a total flop.”

Rialto Pictures, the New York-based boutique distribution company that rereleases classics and rarities, has beautifully restored “.” The new print arrives Friday at the Nuart in West L.A. for a two-week engagement.

Based on the novel by Delacorta (the pseudonym of Daniel Odier), “Diva” revolves around a young postman named Jules (Frederic Andrei) who secretly records a performance by his favorite opera singer (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez) because she refuses to make records. Added to the pop art confection – beautifully shot by Philippe Rousselot – are a young Vietnamese kleptomaniac (Thuy An Luu), who befriends Jules, and her enigmatic boyfriend (Richard Bohringer).

Though “Diva” took a nose dive in France in 1981, there was one little theater in Paris that stuck with the film for nine months.

“It was a time when it was still possible” to book a film for that long, Beineix says. “That would be absolutely impossible right now – a movie is either a hero or a dead body within a couple of hours when it is released.”

The turning point for “Diva” was at the Toronto Film Festival. “The film was received like it was one of the seven wonders,” he recalls. “There was a huge standing ovation. All the distributors that had refused in America to take the movie, when they saw an American crowd [in the theater] standing up, they changed their mind.”

Beineix, who had not seen Fernandez in 20 years, recently reunited with her. “She is entirely devoted to her art,” he says. “She loves opera. That is her life and existence. She’s improved her voice, and now she’s a real diva. She’s full of harmony and very well centered. Very good vibrations come out of her.”

– Susan King